Why are you hearing about this 1981 film today? Not because of director and co-writer Michael Laughlin, whose career may have ended after he wrote the notorious Town & Country in 2001.

No, the other writer was Bill Condon, who not only wrote Gods and Monsters, he also wrote the script for Chicago (not that that's such a Herculean effort). So riding on Condon's rising star comes his first film, made when little Bill was just 26 years old. He even appears in the opening scene, sneaking a cigarette before he gets killed (in shadow) as the first of several offings.

Early Brian De Palma horror/thriller takes the Carrie vibe one by putting a government intrigue plot on the heads of its telekinetic teens -- which means people getting killed if they don't play nice. Kirk Douglas shines as the spy father of just such a teen (Andrew Stevens!), while across the globe, Amy Irving is just coming to terms with her powers. Of course, the feds will stop at nothing to control the powers in question. Watchable, but completely hokey (which, of course, is typical of De Palma's films altogether).

Why are you hearing about this 1981 film today? Not because of director and co-writer Michael Laughlin, whose career may have ended after he wrote the notorious Town & Country in 2001.

No, the other writer was Bill Condon, who not only wrote Gods and Monsters, he also wrote the script for Chicago (not that that's such a Herculean effort). So riding on Condon's rising star comes his first film, made when little Bill was just 26 years old. He even appears in the opening scene, sneaking a cigarette before he gets killed (in shadow) as the first of several offings.